Electric appliances such as domestic fryers are commonly used to automate food frying in a home setting. These devices relieve the housewife from the discomfort, hassle and danger of frying food manually.
Typically, a fryer comprises a container for oil. The base of the container has a heater element hidden within or a heater element immersed into oil, which heats the oil in the container when it is powered up.
A basket is provided which can be submerged into oil in the container. The basket is for containing food to be fried. The basket is typically made entire of wire mesh, which can withstand breaking down in hot oil.
The basket is placed onto a frame inside the container. The frame is connected to a handle on the external surface of the container. The handle is attached to the external surface of the container in such a way that the handle can be slid upwardly or downwardly on the external surface of the container. The raising or lowering of the handle causes the frame inside the container to be raised and lowered at the same time. The basket placed on the frame is accordingly raised or lowered by moving the handle. This allows the basket to move relatively to the frame and the container.
When the basket is lowered into the container, food in the basket may be fried in hot oil in the lower part of the container. Conversely, when the basket is lifted from the container, food in the basket is raised above the oil to terminate the frying.
A spindle extends upwardly from the bottom of the container and is rotatable about a vertical axis. A motor hidden in the base of the container is capable of spinning the spindle.
As shown in the illustration of FIG. 1a, the top end of the spindle has a set of two clips, each clip extending radially in opposite directions from the spindle axis. The clips are for engaging the basket so that the basket is rotated when the spindle spins.
At the centre of the base of the basket is an upwardly extending funnel, which defines a through hole from the base of the funnel to the top of the funnel. Thus, the funnel is capable of being slipped over the spindle in the container.
The clips are typically made of metal strips designed to be resilient like springs, i.e. the clips are physically resilient and deformable. The clips are biased to extend in the radial direction of the spindle, over a specific distance which is longer than the diameter of the funnel. Thus, when the funnel is slipped onto the spindle, the clips deform under pressure exerted by the internal circumference of the funnel, and are pressed against the spindle. The deformation of the clips allows the funnel to slip past the clips and onto the rest of the spindle.
When the basket is slipped onto the spindle and brought to a lowered position which is beneath the clips, the funnel and the clips are not mechanically engaged to each other.
However, the basket can be raised on the spindle, such that the funnel is moved into a position to be fixed to the top of the spindle. To fix the basket, there are indentations along the internal wall of the funnel which correspond to the clips. The indentations are spaces in the funnel which allow the clips, deformed when the funnel is passing over them, to snap into their original structure. Thus, the clips extending into the indentations hold the basket in the raised position on the spindle. In this position, when the spindle spins the affixed basket rotates along with the spindle. As the basket is above the oil level in the raised position, the rotation of the basket provides a centrifugal force to dispel oil in the food.
To remove the basket from the spindle in this raised position, the user simply pulls the basket away from spindle by brute force, again forcing the clips to deform in order to slip out from the indentations, and to allow the funnel to pass over.
The lowering and raising of the basket by the frame provides room for the basket to wobble a little during the movement. If the funnel axis and the spindle axis are not aligned when the funnel engages the clips, one of the clips may be engaged while the other clip is not engaged by the basket funnel. This causes the basket to be jammed in the misaligned position on the spindle. It is difficult for a housewife to disengage the jamming because of the oil, heat and strength required.
Furthermore, the action of slipping the basket funnel onto the spindle and the action of lifting the basket free of the spindle are both difficult for a small and delicate housewife.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a fryer which has a reduced likelihood of a basket jamming onto the spindle and is also physically easy to operate in a domestic kitchen by a delicate housewife.